“I sure hope so.” Raven shakes her perfectly glassy straight hair at the empty chairs and tables. “At this rate, there won’t be a need for another waitress.”
“Come on. Let’s get to the banquet room before the birthday girl’s guests arrive.” I coax her out of her disheartened gaze before she gets cold feet and never lands a job and never moves out. Her slovenly ways have certainly not grown on me, nor do I intend to let them. This morning I found six different shampoo bottles in the guest bathroom, all of them flipped on their sides, vomiting pink goo from their spouts. Her razor was on the floor next to the toilet—working end up. If she slices her foot open and gets a staph infection, this girl will never leave alive.
“Hey, Lex?” Mojo calls out, and I send Raven to the banquet room ahead of me before backtracking to the bar.
“What’s up?” I lean over the icy granite counter as a knot begins to build in my stomach. There’s something about an empty restaurant that doesn’t sit well with me. Especially since it’s been brimming with bodies for the last four months.
“Abby quit. Just thought you should know.”
“What?” A pinch of excitement bubbles in me. Maybe this night is off on the right trajectory after all. “Tell me more.” I’m suddenly intrigued by anything to do with Abby Have-a-Cox-Will-Call-You. I know all about the heavy hitting she’s done to my boyfriend. Hey! I just called Axel my boyfriend! A giddy little laugh rides through me. Abby is gone, and Axel is mine. I’m two for two tonight.
“She said she got some big gig at Collins Enterprises.”
“Collins Enterprises?” My stomach drops. That’s Axel’s father’s conglomerate in which he attempts to take over the world by buying out or partnering in on brand new upstarts that look promising. A part of me was tempted to take the Epicurean Elite his way. It was back when revenge was the soup du jour, but now that Axel and I have patched things up, I’d feel strange asking his father to fund my new company. All that Collins-free zone talk was simply bull I was slinging Axel’s way. I thought the biggest knife through his heart was me getting in good with his father.
“That’s right. She’s sold them in on some new venture she’s spearheading. Something Elite.” My stomach drops right through the floor. No sooner do a thousand traitorous scenarios float through my mind than I shake them right out again. “That’s great. As long as she’s out of my hair.” Mojo probably heard me discussing the Epicurean Elite to Axel a dozen times. It’s no wonder he’s confused the name of Abby’s upstart. Can’t say I’m not envious, though. Whatever she has cooking, she has some serious funding to back her. I’ll admit I’m a teeny bit jealous.
The front doors open and in walk Teagan and Axel, both of them looking as if they’re on their way to senior prom—Teagan with her raspberry svelte dress with spaghetti straps and a rose corsage strapped to her wrist, and Axel in a slick black suit, silver metallic tie that makes me want to use it as a soft form of bondage.
I offer a naughty grin as he circles his arms around my waist.
A dirty grin of his own blooms on his cheeks as he leans in to whisper, “I love that look on your face. Whatever it is you’re thinking, keep thinking it. In about six hours I plan on making all your fantasies come true.”
“Then I hope Shep’s free.”
Ax tips his head back with a moan, and we share a quick laugh.
“Hey!” Teagan speeds back from the banquet hall. “It’s six fifteen. I’m fashionably late. Shouldn’t I at least have a couple of guests milling around awaiting my arrival?” She pulls out her phone and starts in on a texting spree before I can answer.
Axel glances past me before doing a double take. “Where is everyone?”
“I have no clue. The only people I’ve seen since I’ve been here are those idiots picketing my life. I’m sorry I’ve dragged them here.” I wince as if I had truly laid out a trail of breadcrumbs, and in a way I had.
“What protesters?” His head turns toward the door, but his eyes remain trained on mine.
“Didn’t you see them?” I point weakly to the front, sorry I ever brought them up.
“I parked on the side, and Teagan practically ran us in here.” The joy drains from his face as he gently removes his hands from my hips. “I’d better go check this out.” He glances from me to a panic-stricken Teagan.
“Go ahead. I’ve got this.” No sooner does Axel take off than I navigate Teagan to the banquet hall, empty as a tomb save for Raven who does an odd little dance once she sees us.
Teagan tries to manufacture a smile for Raven but misses by a lip-quivering mile. “I guess if my friends don’t show, at least my family will be here.” Her voice breaks. “Except for my dad, of course. He’s working late trying to sort through his new acquisitions.” She looks up at me with her watery gray eyes, and my heart breaks for her. “It’s sort of a tradition at the end of every month—collect as many new interests as you can. My dad’s sort of bent on world domination.”
She seems to be calmer with the diversion her father has provided, so I go with it. “Hey, a friend of mine just sold something to your dad.” Friend? I guess for the sake of argument Abby could be considered a friend. Although it’s more of a stale SAT question than it is an arguable fact. Abby is to friendship as Raven is to work. Lord knows I’d ace that one.
“Really?” Teagan blinks back tears—a clear sign the diversion is working better than I thought. “What’s her name? I bet I met her today. It was my job to vet the prospects.”
“Abby Wilcox.” I snarl as I say it. Old habits die hard.
“Oh, the ditzy blonde!” Her overdone brows perk to life, and I warm when she refers to Abby as ditzy. “She’s the girl with the restaurant thingy. Yeah, Dad thought she was a ditz, too, but Axel swore up and down she had a brain.”
“Restaurant thingy? Do you remember what it was called?”
“No, sorry. Axel thought it was genius, though. He pushed her through all the way. He mentioned she’s a good friend of his.”
The room sways for a moment. “Yeah, I guess she is.”
Another frantic five minutes pass with nary a guest, and Teagan begins howling into her phone “No, no, no!”
“What?” both Raven and I squawk.
“My guests aren’t coming.” Tears spontaneously erupt airborne from the sides of her eyes as if she had morphed into a cartoon version of herself. “They said they can’t support an establishment that houses a confirmed canine abuser on its premises. What the fresh hell are they talking about?”
“I’m going to beat those protestors with their own sticks.” My fingers fly to my lips as I look to Raven for help.
“We’ll move the party!” Raven shrieks in an effort to save the eighteen and out bash that’s flopping like a dead fish at our feet. “We’ll navigate everyone over to the Black Bear. It’ll be a blast, I swear.”
“But we won’t have tables.” Teagan’s delicate features morph into sheer panic— her eyes widen, her mouth pulls back in horror. “What about all the cute decorations and the Pinterest-worthy appetizers the kitchen is making just for me?”
Raven looks to me in a panic. “We’ll have it at her place. She’s got a really cute dog named Strudel, and if you give me a running start I’ll work hard to pick my thongs out from between the sofa cushions.”
I yank her by the elbow. “Are you kidding me?”
“What?” Raven wrestles herself free. “I like to watch TV at night commando. Sue me, would you?”
“Don’t tempt me. I happen to be bedding a litigator.”
“Eww!” Teagan clamps her hands over her ears. “Can this night get any worse?”
My phone bleats in my pocket, and I fish it out. It’s a text from Marlin.
Emergency meeting at the Black Bear. Rush says he has something to tell us. I’m on my way. Can you make it?
I glance up at Teagan and the tears melting her mascara into muddy rivers.
“I’ll grab the Pinterest pineapple canapé and glitter c
ake pops. You and Raven grab the tulle covered balloons and whatever you can from the candy buffet! I’ll meet you in the parking lot in thirty seconds.”
I could never pull off this change of venues without Raven—who ironically has been closer to me than Serena lately. We’ve bonded over missing our dads, and she’s the one who’s prolifically introduced me to rom-coms and girls’ night in while I introduced her to the finer points of cutlery.
Yes, it’s nice to have friends indeed. Now that’s something I never thought I’d say. With Axel back in my life, with friends to call my own—life is shaping up to be everything I never knew it could be.
Now if only this party shapes up, I’ll really have it all.
Okay, so it takes almost twenty minutes to convince Teagan’s so-called friends that a change of venue will not land them on some social media blacklist under the header of hates pets. Darn Stumpy and that endeavor she’s spearheaded against me. I’ve let this nightmare go on for far too long. I may have been a tad complacent when I was the sole target of her hateful sooted soul, but now that she’s effectively killed business at The Sloppy Pelican and killed Teagan’s official Freedom Fest, she’ll have the wrath of the old me to contend with. The old Lex Maxfield was far more of a bitch to deal with—if I do say so myself.
The Black Bear is booming tonight, and just the sight of all these hippy dippy coeds bopping to the live band makes me scowl. I hate that I’ve single-handedly destroyed business for The Sloppy Pelican. It’s as if I’ve been dragging around a curse with me ever since the time of my mother when she abandoned my siblings and me. Speaking of my siblings. I turn to Axel and swipe a quick kiss off his lips.
“Marlin is here. He sort of called a family meeting.”
Axel cranes his neck and growls once he spots him. “I take it I’m not invited.”
“Not yet.” I give a little wink. It’s safe to say Axel and I are well on our way to becoming inseparable. Soon Marlin will have to deal with that. “Why don’t you help wrangle Teagan and her guests inside? They can take selfies with that old stuffed bear later. Trust me, he’s not going anywhere. Raven is taking care of the food.” Axel called ahead to the owners of the Black Bear and they said they’d gladly give us their poolroom to do as we wish. It’s kind of sweet the way Levi, Brody, and Axel have forged a bond with the people who own this place. Especially since it holds so much nostalgic meaning to all of us.
“Will do.” He steals a kiss off my lips before disappearing, and I head to the back where Rush is flagging me down. Rush is Sunday’s older brother, the middle child of my Aunt Priscilla, and coincidentally the one who happens to blame himself for what happened to her. I’ve always had a soft spot for Rush for that very reason. I’ve felt the same guilt about my mother. I was the one who drove her away. It’s been obvious to me since the beginning.
Both Marlin and Rush stand up once they see me, and I offer them each a quick embrace. Marlin is dressed head to toe in his navy Jepson PD garb, and Rush is every bit the preppy frat boy.
“Why are we hiding in the corner?” I say as I bat a fake banana leaf out of my face. That’s one thing about the Black Bear—they’ve lined the periphery of the establishment with silk plants spanning ten feet tall. It gives it a slight tropical appeal, and yet it feels homey. Teagan and her friends run by in a flurry. On second thought, hiding in the corner might be best.
Rush is the spitting image of Nolan, his older brother, yet his hair is a bit lighter. His eyes are the same steely shade as my aunt’s were, and he’s hands down to a fault like his father. Same straight nose, smooth brows, high cheeks, strong jawline. He’s built like an athlete, and the girls don’t seem to mind one bit.
Rush leans in. “You’ll find out in about six seconds.”
“Six seconds?” I parrot, amused. “Will Sunday be joining us in six seconds as well?”
Rush glances to both Marlin and me. “Nope, I’ve arranged for her to show in about five minutes. Hate to say it, but Sunday has been harboring a little secret from the two of you.”
“What secret?” My curiosity piques. Clearly, I haven’t spent nearly enough time with my family as of late.
Serena pops up to the edge of the table, and both Marlin and I bolt to our feet to greet her.
“Here she is!” Marlin gives his baby sister a quick embrace, and I’m quick to get in on the lovefest.
Marlin ticks his head back, amused by my actions. “You’ve changed.” He gives a little wink. “It’s as if you’re suddenly happy or something.”
My mouth opens as I glance toward the poolroom. “I am.” I pull my sister into the seat next to me, and she hesitates before falling hard on her bottom. “So what’s new with you? Rush here is being extra secretive.”
Serena looks to Rush and snarls at him. My heart breaks seeing the action because I know Serena is simply modeling the behavior she’s seen me do a thousand times. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m finally happy. I’m hoping to model that behavior for Serena, too. The last person I want her turning into is me. Heck, I don’t even want to be me anymore.
“Nothing’s new,” she grits it through her teeth at her cousin, and every alarm in me starts to go off. “I’m fine.”
Serena looks anything but fine. In fact, I’ve never seen her dressed in a T-shirt that reads Black Bear Saloon, and she rarely wears her hair in a ponytail. It’s a style I’m not used to seeing on her, and come to think of it, that all too familiar notepad she’s accessorizing with seems a bit suspicious.
“Serena?” My throat grows parched because for once I hope I’m wrong. “Why are you doing your best impersonation of a waitress at the Black Bear?”
Before she can open her mouth, Sunday shows up and gasps. “My God! You told them you’re a waitress?”
“Waitress?” Marlin ticks his head back. “Since when?”
Serena gives a weak shrug my way. “Since the beginning of the semester?”
I take in a breath that never seems to end. “Serena Maxfield! You are not even allowed in this bar, let alone allowed to wear a T-shirt of theirs with pride—let alone find employment in this establishment!” The sentence strums from me so fast it sounds like one long word.
“Why not?” The veins in my sister’s neck distend. “I know for a fact you’re working as a waitress at The Sloppy Pelican! If it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me!”
I take in another quick breath.
Both Marlin and Rush study me with curiosity before my brother leans in, his badge shining in the light as if its sole purpose were to sweat the truth out of me. And it’s working.
“Why are you waiting tables?” Marlin shakes his head at me, truly confounded by the idea.
“Because I lost my job. It’s a long story.”
Rush grunts as if I were just sucker punched in front of them. “Dude, did you get fired from your old job?”
“Of course, she didn’t get fired,” Sunday is quick to defend me. Sunday is forever believing the best in everybody. As much as I admire it, I also find it her biggest fault.
“I got fired.” I wince her way. I’ve never been one to lie to anyone at this table. Anyone in general.
The table erupts into a cluster of chaotic conversation, accusations and all around incomprehensible melee until Serena finally stands and shouts, “I’m a waitress at the Black Bear! Get over it!” She looks over at Sunday and shrugs as if unsure of what comes next. “And I dropped out of Barnes.”
The air around us stills as the sounds in the bar all warp together into one slow demonic burp.
“What?” Marlin and I cry out in unison.
“Relax.” She flops back in her seat, and that tiny tennis skirt those perverts who run this place make her don flies up, exposing her underwear. “I transferred to Briggs.” Serena ducks behind a menu.
“You did not!” I pluck the menu fort away and toss it onto the next table, and a group of girls break out into an obnoxious giggle. I loathe the Black Bear’s underage populace w
ith a vengeance right now. “You agreed with me that boys were nothing more than a distraction, remember? Barnes is a reputable school. It’s practically an Ivy!” I scream.
“Well, it’s not an Ivy!” Serena screams back. “And I happen to like boys—a lot.”
Marlin groans as he sinks in his seat. “And the two of you knew?” He looks to Sunday and Rush, and they both remain silent in their guilt. “Why did it take you two months to fill us in on this non-news?”
“Non-news?” I kick my brother from under the table. “We’re on the same page, remember? Barnes equals no boys equals safe and happy Serena!”
Sunday grunts, “Please. You tried that on me, and I wouldn’t have it. I’m shocked she went along with it for as long as she did.”
Marlin shakes his head at me. “It didn’t work for you, did it?”
Marlin knows all too well what went down between Axel and me. He was sort of a supporting role in our not-so great demise.
I make a face over at him before turning to my sister, my younger doppelganger whose eyes are filled with tears.
Serena spears me with her rage. “I was so afraid of disappointing you I had to go. No sooner did I do the campus tour than I realized it was a huge mistake. I can get a great education at Whitney Briggs, too, you know. Plus, I won’t run the risk of having five thousand cycle sisters. Rumor has it, the PMS alone in that place was enough to make you crave the inside of an insane asylum.”
I close my eyes a moment. “Okay, so you got me there.” My entire person sags at the thought of my baby sister subjected to drunks and frat boys. “They might have been a run on tampons around the twelfth of every month, but I’m neither confirming nor denying the fact. Barnes wasn’t that bad.” Sunday and Serena share a laugh in contrast to Marlin’s and Rush’s groan. “Are you sure this is what you want?” I glance around, and to my surprise the Black Bear looks mostly harmless in nature.